Wedded to the steering wheel?
Are some drivers so wedded to their cars that they choose to be at a standstill in a traffic jam rather than question this activity? Given that 40% of car journeys in Oxford are under two miles, it’s a reasonable assumption that some people are contributing to Oxford’s congestion problem by choosing to drive walkable trips.
They do reflect an extraordinarily long history: perhaps 250 years. During that period, schools and hospitals have proliferated in Oxford, contributing to employment and congestion during rush hour and school runs. It is possible that the history of the car industry in the city may have contributed to creating a group of people who cannot envisage travelling other than by driving.
This view is partly based on extensive canvassing in Oxford’s elections 2014-2021. The observation is also reinforced by comments appearing on social media, which generally do not include suggestions for traffic reduction. Also, even recent planning applications, such as one for upgrading Warneford Hospital, show remarkably little awareness of Oxford’s rush-hour school-run congestion.
Not enough opportunities taken to create city homes
More than half of those working in Oxford do not live in the city. Many drive into Oxford, resisting the use of active travel, park and rides, buses, or trains.
Consistent city council policies to zone land for employment and minimise opportunities for low-cost homes can be demonstrated. First, the Westgate shopping centre redevelopment was supposed to have council homes, but only a few luxury flats were built. Second, the large opportunity to redevelop the Oxpens area has yet more employment land allocation, some student accommodation, and far too few new homes.
Oxford’s vast brownfield reserve of surface car parks remains underused, as opportunities to place apartments above surface level parking have not been pursued. Developing housing above both private and public car parks could add to council and keyworker part-rent/part-buy homes.
Too much car parking provision
Templars Square, the largest shopping complex outside central Oxford, was created with two large multi-storey car parks. A large surface car park at the John Allen Centre across the road added to this. The multi-storey car parks were never full; one was even mothballed. Why?
Because as recent research by a would-be redeveloper of Templars Square found, half of those who use the shopping centre walk to it. With bike and bus users, car users of Templars Square are a minority. This example is symptomatic of a general planning failure to radically reduce car parking provision to deal with Oxford’s major traffic problems, especially when both schools and universities are in operation.
Other problems include 4,000 parking spaces at Oxford University and colleges, as well as significant traffic movements to and from private schools. The Labour administration of the city council wants peripheral and satellite housing developments, which will exacerbate traffic problems. By contrast, in March 2025, a Citizens’ Assembly voted in favour of Oxford having a car-free city centre. Reducing car parking provision will help.
Incomplete walking and cycling networks
New research suggests that walking 7,000 steps per day has major positive impacts on a variety of health risks, including cardiovascular disease, dementia, and depression. But good walking networks in Oxford still need completion. Most walking and cycling routes are broken up to accommodate vehicles.
Whilst Oxford City Council is beginning to consider this, planning some wider pavements between the city centre and the rail station is a very modest start. High-quality walking and cycling routes should be part of networks linking the communities of Oxford and from Oxford into the countryside. Some such routes do exist, for example, eastwards in the direction of Wheatley.
Could better rail routes assist in Oxford’s traffic crisis?
Oxford City Council, with other stakeholders, successfully is pressing for the re-opening of the single-track Cowley to Oxford rail line. Currently, it is used for moving completed cars from the BMW electric Mini plant on the eastern edge of Oxford.
A modest passenger rail service could develop on this line, but greater use could be expected if the Oxford-Witney-Carterton route were opened up into West Oxfordshire. The West Oxfordshire District Council’s economic appraisal of this proposal follows years of campaigning by Witney Oxford Transport. Excessive West Oxfordshire housing growth without such rail provision is reflected in a severely clogged A40 route into Oxford.
An expanded rail station with even more passengers?
There is a question of whether even the rebuilt Oxford rail station will be able to accommodate significantly more passengers when all proposed changes are completed. The physical space for passengers is one aspect of this. More vehicles of all kinds, in larger numbers, trying to access the rail station, and potentially more drop-off traffic, may well create additional congestion.
My recommendation to stop this from occurring is for traffic filters to be added to Abingdon Road and Botley Road. Walking, cycling, bus, and taxi drop-offs already dominate movements at the rail station and will need more space when it’s enlarged.
Poorer households and access to essential transport
Since the wealthiest 0.1% of people in Britain are responsible for emitting about 22 times more carbon than the lowest earners, it is possible to see immediately that dealing with this form of inequality can help decarbonisation. A frequent flyer’s tax would help, as would increasing taxation on SUVs.
More resources are needed to assist disadvantaged groups with better active travel investments and to encourage the use of electric vehicles where absolutely necessary. The government has recently announced further support for purchasing EVs. But forecasts of 10 million more vehicles on the road by 2050 will create more pressure for traffic reduction measures.
Who has access to a car?
Census 2021 figures indicated that 32.1% of Oxford households did not have access to a car. We cannot assume this is purely a cost issue since many people do walk and cycle regularly in the city; anecdotal evidence suggests that some households have decided not to own a car. During the Covid-19 pandemic, which influenced a variety of Census 2021 results, about 38.8% of people who did commute to work did so by walking or cycling. In this sort of picture, it is possible to make some observations:
The walking commuter
Census 2021 indicated 21.6% of people were commuting to work on foot in Oxford, but this figure was collected under a lockdown in March 2021. Nevertheless, large numbers of walking commuters remain in evidence.
If you get up and leave home anywhere in the vicinity of Oxford’s large ‘estate’ of hospitals in Headington, between about 5.30-6.15 am, you will see pedestrians, and some cyclists, dominating this stage of the day, with hospital and other work ID cards. Not all work in the NHS. Some are identifiably in care work in private homes or residential ones. Do they have an access problem with transport?
We all, according to our capacity, need to walk. But not everybody is within walking distance of work (and some careers require a car), as Oxford has very high home prices and disturbingly high private rents. So, some of this morning rush use buses, notably in the suburb of Blackbird Leys, which has many council homes. There are no bus ticket price concessions until 9.00am for most people.
Any bus fare is an access issue for low-paid workers, and despite Oxford being second only to Cambridge in England for cycling, many Oxford residents who could cycle choose not to, some on safety grounds. However, research suggests both the cost of a bike and its storage may be putting some people off cycling. Houses in multiple occupation, (HMOs), many of which are identifiable in the Oxford City Council register, often have no bike parking provision.
Mobility and social exclusion
Poverty data is invariably dated. Much is from the 2021 census. This means it pre-dates the intensified cost of living crisis in which food prices, energy and water bills, and private rents all feature. Bearing in mind that about a quarter of British people have less than £100 in savings, they lack financial resilience.
This underlines a need to move towards free buses for all, as a one-step improvement in the circumstances of the poorest, and a good step to discourage car use and protect the climate and air quality. But social exclusion still applies if people cannot get where they need to go at an appropriate time, or if there are personal barriers which impede their capacity to travel.
Reducing the need for mobility will help, especially if localities have better facilities, but there are limits to what can realistically be sited in small settlements. Nevertheless, an ageing population may favour, and press for, more and better local facilities.
Future revenue
The local government has been subject to austerity measures going back to the 1970s. It is not surprising that local transport, like all areas of local government, is underfunded. My key conclusion is that local transport conditions cannot be radically improved unless the local government has more resources. This should include electronic road pricing and the replacement of council tax and business rates with a highly progressive form of land value taxation. At the time of writing, road pricing seems to be under consideration in the next budget. We’ll see.
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